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Henry’s Big Kaboom

A children’s sing-along ballad
Written and illustrated by Mary Ames Mitchell

“Through the deep dark forests and the muddy swamps, they pulled those guns. It was quite a task, but they held fast and forged their way toward Boston.”

Considered the "most stupendous logistical feat of the American Revolution," Colonel Henry Knox fetched the cannon and other large guns from recently captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain in New York. With the help of patriotic countrymen, his men transported the sixty tons of heavy artillery to Dorchester Heights, where they looked down on Boston and “scared the British away.”

As a result, General Washington claimed his first victory of the American Revolution.

In an effort to appeal to her preschool grandchildren, Mary wrote this story as a ballad that can be sung to the folk tune “Turkey in the Straw.” The book includes chords for accompaniment.